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CORPORATE SOLDIERS Within months of receiving expert tute- these explanations ring hollow. Almost all
— Privatising the Use of Force — lage from MPRI, Croatia launched a series serious commentators agree that Executive
fter having privatised in whole or part of intense, well-planned and successful Outcomes is simply breaking itself into less
offensives against ethnic Serbs. Military identifiable parts, and will continue its dark
experts noted that the Croatian military work, using other countries as bases.
machine was vastly improved in just a few At a December 1998 seminar in
short months—an upgrade that likely con- Johannesburg, on the privatisation of secu-
tributed to its decision to go on the tity services in Africa, Princeton University
offensive. Professor Jeff Herbst described EO as a
.. - ; . Before MPRI entered the picture, ACRI "virtual firm" set to "mutate" into a less vis-
nisin lroiessiionel RESTORES, lie, ad already begun compiling a similar ible, but still potent, organisation.
Cia, off Arlington, Wirginiages self- record. Uganda and Senegal, each of which Professor Herbst's contention appears
described Gajpeetiton of former military received Special Forces trainers as part of well-grounded. At least two organisations
professionals...ranging from commanders to ACRI's initial deployment in July 1996, developed by EO are still alive: Saracen, in
tank gunners"—to carry out its African have become deeply involved in wars with Uganda (part-owned by President
Crisis Responsive Initiative (ACRI). At bordering nations. Museveni's half-brother, defence minister
State Department prodding, seven nations ACRI equipment has been found on Sahni Saleh), and Lifeguard Security, in
spanning the African continent have already Ugandan soldiers fighting against Kabila in Sierra Leone.
nearly all other government functions,
the US Government is now outsourcing the
use of force. The latest stage in the privati-
sation of military functions is the contract-
ing-out of training of Third World armies.
The Department of State has turned to
signed up for the program. the Congo. Human rights groups, such as
The ostensible purpose of ACRI is tocre- Human Rights Watch and Amnesty PEACEKEEPING/WAR-MAKING BLUR
ate an indigenous peacekeeping force in International, have also linked ACRI- There is clearly a growing market for
Africa. Military forces from nearly all of trained battalions to murders, rapes and Corporate logistics and quasi-peacekeeping
the seven nations currently participating— beatings committed against Ugandan civil- Services. The largest firms filling this mar-
Benin, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Senegal, ans in areas of the country contested by ket niche are DynCorp, based in Reston,
Uganda and, most recently, the Ivory rebels. Senegal is supporting Guinea- Virginia, and Betac, of Alexandria,
Coast—have already received some train- Bissau rebels against the authoritarian Virginia. They both construct physical and
ing from the 3rd Special Forces based at General Asumaric Mane. electronic infrastructures and, in most
Fort Bragg, North Carolina. cases, offer personnel to fill them.
Why use a private corporation to conduct COURTING PRIVATE WAR-MAKERS DynCorp, with 17,500-plus employees,
military training? Government officials say The foil to MPRI has been Executive °V@! 550 operating facilities around the
privatisation can save taxpayers money. In Outcomes (EO), a Pretoria-based firm world and annual revenues of more than)
the case of ACRI, the State Department founded in 1989. EO's speciality was USSI.3 billion, is paniculanly massive aod
says MPRI and LOGICON (a huge mobilising highly trained veterans of South is one ofthe) Pentagon s largest SOU Cee
Arlington-based electronics company) can Africa's counterinsurgency wars to reverse DynCorp’s services are also integrated into
do the advanced training more cheaply, and _ the odds in deadly engagements elsewhere ine [baa iiitoroomant Agency, the
more effectively, than the Army. on the continent. Its public relations strate- pepariment one the pvrenmental
But whatever the cost savings, the pri- gy was to portray the company as a conve- Conan . ee - e h AS al
vatisation of military and quasi-military — nient shot-in-the-arm for besieged democra- Ree seal Tie a a nterna
functions raises huge questions of account- cies. In reality, the firm's activities largely ee GRAS EG) HO TCESINY
ability and the misuse of force that are sure consisted of propping up governments epartment.
to loom large as MPRI and other military amenable to the continued outbound flow
service companies like South Africa's — of Africa's rich mineral wealth.
AVOIDING ACCOUNTABILITY
For the United States, the crucial benefits
Executive Outcomes and the United States’ Heritage-Branch, the oil and mining com- f privatised mili ee 1 4
DynCorp grow. bine of British investor Tony Buckingham, ° ipalvelasc mi Wary BANA are Geseus
had an intentionally obscured interlocking Re ot us joreign Croats and fr level
PRIVATISED PEACEKEEPING directorate with EO. Heritage-Branch has © 4!S@ssoctation from activities it deems
unpleasant necessities. With the US popu-
lace particularly averse to having nationals
fight and die in foreign quagmires, the idea
of outsourcing peacekeeping activities is
especially attractive to the US military
establishment. The State Department and
the Department of Defense both gain
Some of the potential dangers evenina mining interests in countries such as
privatised peacekeeping training operation Angola and Sierra Leone—two countries in
are foreseeable in the still-in-its-infancy which EO has spent violent time.
ACRI program and in MPRI's former On 1 January 1999, Executive Outcomes
operations. disbanded. Nico Palm, EO's owner, put a
The State Department is quick to empha- clean face on the demise of the firm, com-
sise that the ACRI program does not trans- menting in a press statement that "African hecause the capture or murder of contrac-
fer lethal equipment, but quality training by countries are busy working out solutions in tors carries almost no political fallout.
definition builds a residual lethal force— Africa". Another EO statement cites "the Look for MPRI, DynCorp and friends to
soldiers—and can alter regional balances of consolidation of law and order across the gg well in future years.
power. MPRI, whose motto is "The African continent" as a reason for the com- (Source: From an article by Daniel Burton-
Greatest Corporate Military Expertise in the _ pany's purported obsolescence. Rose and Wayne Madsen, published in
World", has provided clear illustration of But given the mind-numbing quantity of Multinational Monitor, March 1999; website
the value of good teachers. blood being spilled across the continent, —